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September 24, 2009

IIM-S Shows the Way

Great ideas need great takers as well for a meaningful future discourse. The Indian Institute of Management-Shillong (IIM-S) has come up with one such idea — that of producing sports managers of the future, unlike the present breed of so-called sports managers who do anything on earth but manage sports. No wonder, the sports domain is so disarrayed, with politicians, by virtue of them being chairmen of most of the sports bodies, having already ruined the careers of many a talent. Now that the IIM-S has decided to start a six-month certificate course on sports management for which the fee would be an affordable Rs 10,000, one hopes it would not only pave the way for the much-needed professional treatment of games and sports and sportsmen, but also help identify and explore sporting talents and nourish them professionally. In other words, games and sports may now be managed in the true sense of the term. Look at the sporting wonder that neighbouring China has turned out to be, thanks to the discipline of sports management it has evolved and the rigorous exercise of the cardinal principles of sports management it has unfailingly undertaken. As IIM-S Director Ashok Dutta rightly said, the country needs ‘‘professional sports managers, not volunteers who use sports as a launching pad for other jobs’’. It is now incumbent on the people of the Northeast — a region where there is no dearth of sporting talents, but that is crying for their professional exploration — to make the best use of the innovative IIM-S course and implement the knowledge so acquired in changing the sports direction of the region. As we said in the very beginning, the takers of the IIM-S idea have a greater responsibility. With an IIM-S certificate in their hands, they must do justice to the course. THE SENTINEL